Elizabeth Stanton, a Derby resident, told the Derby Board of Education on Aug. 18 that district staff submitted a truancy referral to the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office using school attendance letters that she says showed her child had 10 excused absences and zero unexcused absences.
Stanton said the referral led to a letter from the district attorney’s office warning her family their child could be declared a “child in need of care” for alleged educational neglect and ordered them to attend a courthouse workshop or face formal proceedings.
Stanton framed her remarks as a request that the board examine how staff prepared the referral and the culture that allowed a staff member’s personal opinion to be included in an official document. “That was not fact. That was not evidence. That was an opinion, a personal attack written into an official government document,” she told the board.
She said many entries on her daughter’s attendance record were errors logged while the student was participating in school-sponsored activities and that automated calls had incorrectly reported unexcused absences. She said she excused some of the errors via the Skyward system to avoid protracted disputes, and later was told she could no longer excuse her own child’s absences without a doctor’s note.
Stanton said the referral and the DA warning caused reputational harm and stress to her family and argued the district’s approach diverted resources away from families she said face clear neglect and need support. “This is a government education system inserting itself where it does not belong,” Stanton said. “This board must take a hard look at the culture that allows something like this to happen.”
At the meeting the item appeared in the public-comments portion; no board action on the referral was recorded at that time. The board did not enter into a hearing or take formal direction at the meeting that followed Stanton’s remarks.
Stanton urged the board to review district practice around attendance records, how staff narrative is added to referrals, and the decision to forward cases to the Sedgwick County District Attorney's Office.
The board did not respond with a formal action at the Aug. 18 meeting; Stanton’s comments were taken under advisement per board protocol.